My SOA

devils_nose

Hi gang - I've never posted an SOA on here before (I think) but I have been watching the advice you have given lots of DFW's for the past year or so and I think I've trimmed my budget down quite nicely now but if you can see anything daft, please say so

Income: £1,342

Rent: £200
Car Insurance: £27
Phone: £37
Halifax card: £80 (min payment, loan details below)
Skycard: £75 (min payment, loan details below)

Petrol: £60
Food: £20 (I live at home, in a shop so need little extra in my budget for this)
Parking: £40
Weightwatchers: £20
Misc: £20
Going out: £150 (this used to be £100 but I was finding it tough, so subject to change)
Toiletries: £10
Clothes: £20
Treat: £10 (this usually gets spent on other people's birthdays)
Lottery: £20

ISA: £450
E-saver: £100
Oxfam: £5

Credit cards:
Halifax - owe £4,027 (0% till March 07)
Skycard - owe £3,067 (0% till 1 Jan 07)

I figure I'm better off paying the minimum off my cards while they're at 0% and plugging the money I would be paying towards them into savings accounts where it can earn interest for a few months. Am hoping to transfer the balances over to other credit cards and keep the debt at 0% but if I have to use the saving to pay them off then I shall

I know the going out budget seems steep, it costs £20 to get home in a taxi so that automatically sets the cost of a night out higher. I have spent almost a year being good and not drinking to save money and I just paid off my egg loan so I thought I'd give myself a bit of a break for a couple of months (also I'm sure the extra will get sucked into paying for xmas rather than painting the town red!)

What do you think?

leni

could you not leave nights our earlier and get the last bus?

Re Weight watchers (get to goal - it's free then he he - I got to goal in July:D )

How much have you saved towards your debt at the moment?

Your car costs you £100 a month in petrol and parking, is transport cheaper, or can you car share (either you share someones car or you pick someone up and they contribute towards your petrol/parking) our council have a board that you can advertise or contact people who want to carshare.

devils_nose

Sadly I live in the sticks and the last bus home is 7.30pm I did used to do that!

Weightwatchers is a bit misleading, sorry, I pay the £5 a week into a pot and will get it back when I reach my target (11lbs to go - yay!)

I've only got about £500 towards my debt at the moment because I was paying all that money I'm now saving off my loan until the 1/10 so I'm just about to start gathering funds.

I have put my name down for car sharing but noone has gotten in touch yet - I should probably try and be more proactive on this, maybe I'll post a notice on the work intranet? Problem is, I could only do it 3 days a week but maybe I could find someone that would work for?

Thanks!!

Welshlassie

Well done on posting your SOA, its hard but worth it in the long run.

Do you actually want to pay off your debts or just keep moving them from 0% to 0%? I don't mean this to sound harsh just tryin to work out where you are coming from.

Are you paying anything into your savings accounts for when the 0% comes to an end - is that what the ISA and E-savinigs is for? If so how much is in there.

Your petrol and parking costs are very high, is there an alternative. Could you park further away (it is usually cheaper if you are based in town centre) from wherever you need to be going (assuming it is work) and walk in, this will have the added benefit of giving you extra exercise and help you loose weight quicker.

If you want to get these paid off asap, I'd get rid of your Oxfam and Lottery that's £25 per month extra already.

Do you actually find WW works, if not is there any point in paying someone £20 a month to weigh you when you could weigh yourself at home and put the money into a fund to save towards some new clothes. Ask your mum to weigh you and keep the money.

Your phone is quite high as well. Is this a contract or PAYG?

devils_nose

I do want my debts paid off my next Sept/Oct.. if I can keep them at 0% till then I think I will owe about £5,500 and I will have saved over £7,000 (of course there are other things that will nibble at the savings along the way, car service etc)

Currently £500 saved.

I don't think I can reduce the petrol costs as I have trouble staying within the £60 pm already (distance relationship) but you are right about the parking. I currently use park and ride, which is £2 per day and on the outskirts of town, but I should look into whether there is scope for free parking and then walking in from one of the suburbs. I should have been doing that over the summer really!

I know I really should consider getting rid of lottery at least, its a pipe dream. I'll have a think on that.

Yeah we do that for WW already, I just didn't know what to call it - I gave up on giving them my money long ago

Phone is contract, am on one of those 6 month free things though so I can reclaim some of that money (must get on and do that!!) not sure if they'll tolerate a change of tariff under those circumstances.

pudding06

AS above get rid of lottery and oxfam

a) unfortunately the odds are stacked agianst you and youre never likely to win, and
b) think of yourself as a charity until your debts are cleared.:rotfl:

£37 pmth for a phone? could you change to a different tarif/ provider?
and whats the misc for ? if you dont mind me asking? esp as you already have a section for treats:p

pudds

devils_nose

the misc is generally used on days when I have no time to prepare my lunch or it gets used to top up other budgets (usually parking as £40 only works for 20 working days in the month) Its me not being strict enough with myself, I suppose. I should just force myself to go without lunch once or twice if I can't get up early enough to prepare it, I'm sure it won't take me long to learn to find that extra time! I think I've actually only had the treat money to myself twice in the last 18 months